Issue 01 · 2026
The Karma Yogi Journal. Field notes for the long grind.
- Essays
- 94
- Exam tracks
- 5
- Topics
- 63
The Lead
The essay we keep coming back to.
The Archive
Everything else worth reading, ordered by date.
Page 6 / 10 · 93 entries
CAT Negative Marking Strategy: The Real Expected-Value Math
CAT's +3/-1 marking means a genuinely blind guess on a standard four-option MCQ has an expected value of exactly zero - not the small positive edge NEET's +4/-1 gives you. Eliminate even one option and the calculus flips hard in your favour. Here is the arithmetic worked properly, section by section.
Active Recall vs Rereading: What 200 Students Showed
In a 2011 Science experiment, 101 of 120 students learned more from retrieval practice than from an elaborative study method - and only 30 of them expected to. That gap between what works and what feels like it works is the whole reason people reread.
Best Time to Study Morning or Night: What 3.4M Logins Say
There is no universal best hour, and the largest datasets on this question disagree about which direction the effect even runs. Here is what four studies actually found, including the one whose own prediction was refuted, and a three-week test you can run on your own log instead.
How to Analyse NEET Mocks (Beyond Just the Score)
The same score can hide two opposite problems. A worked example: two hypothetical candidates land on an identical 560/720 with an identical 46 wrong - and need completely different fixes.
JEE Maths Shortcuts: 5 Techniques, Each One Derived
Five JEE Maths techniques, each with the algebra that generates it and a fully worked example - because a shortcut you understand survives exam pressure, and one you only memorised does not.
NEET Chemistry: Three Branches, Three Worked Examples
Three worked examples, one per branch: why tert-butyl bromide reacts differently from methyl bromide, why nitrogen breaks the periodic trend it should follow, and a 30-second mole calculation.
NEET Negative Marking: Expected Value and the Skip Decision
A blind guess has a theoretical +0.25 expected value. Run it across 15 questions and the theory says +3.75 marks - but if your instinct-driven guesses beat random by even a little in the wrong direction, it flips to a 7.5-mark loss.
How to Prepare for JEE Without Coaching: 4 Substitutes
Coaching sells four specific things, none of which require a classroom: a schedule, regular testing, peer accountability, and curated problems. Here is a concrete substitute for each, and the one that quietly breaks most self-study plans.
JEE Chemistry Strategy: Three Branches, Three Study Modes
Chemistry is the highest-ROI JEE subject, but only if Organic, Inorganic and Physical get studied differently rather than as one undifferentiated block. Three worked examples showing what "differently" actually means.
How to Prepare for NEET Without Coaching: 4 Substitutes
A coaching batch sells four things - structure, pacing, a test series, peer pressure - and none of them require a classroom. Free lecture series like Physics Wallah already proved the structure half at scale.
Colophon
Written between mocks. Edited between sits.
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